The purpose of the present study is to build upon our previous findings by examining whether the influence of OPRM1 on alcoholism risk varies depending on specific environmental factors, namely parental monitoring and deviant peer affiliation. We hypothesized that risk associated with the A118G SNP of the OPRM1 gene would be moderated by parental monitoring and deviant peer affiliation, such that youth with lower parental monitoring and higher affiliation with deviant peers would experience greater risk for developing an AUD. In addition, given the interrelatedness of parental monitoring and deviant peer affiliation, we explored the three-way interactive effects of genotype and these environmental variables to evaluate whether an interaction between genotype and one environmental variable varies across levels of the other environmental variable. In brief, this study seeks to reach a more integrative perspective on the relative risk associated with the A118G SNP of the OPRM1 gene by considering key environmental components known to influence the development of AUDs in youth.
